Sunday, February 14, 2016

Valentine's Day - Love in the 1500s + Cupid's Instructions for lovers in 1600s

1520s Paris Bordone (Italian High Renaissance Painter, 1500-1571) Detail of Venetian Lovers"Instructions for Lovers: teaching them, how to demean themselves towards their Sweet-hearts. You must not accost them with a shrug, as if you were lowsie: With, 'your Ladie', 'best Ladie', or 'most super-excellent Ladie': neither must you let your words come rumbling forth, ushered in with a good full mouth'd, Oath, as 'I love you'... But you must in fine gentle words, deliver your true affection: Praise your Mistress Eies, her Lip, her Chin, her Nose, her Neck, her Face, her Hand, her Feet, her Leg, her Waste, her every thing." Cupids Master-piece, or, The Free-school of Witty and Delightful Compliments (1656)

1523 Lorenzo Lotto (Northern Italian painter, c 1480–1556) ) Mr Marsilio & Wife
Amorous compliments endorsed by John Gough, The Academy of Complements (1663):"Her Dove-like eyes.""Liquorous rolling eyes.""Her cheeks shine like sparkling stones.""Her Cheeks are like Punick Apples.""Her Cheeks are spread with Spices and Flowers.""Her breasts are the soft Pillows of love.""Her breasts are soft and tender as the Pelican's.""Her Thighes are fit subjects for the pleasant Songs of youthfull Poets to acquaint the world with.""Her legs as stately and firm as marble pillars."

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On March 4, 2011, Emile de Bruijn of the National Trust in the UK, wrote on his blog "Treasure Hunt" of making history & art available to all: "Traditionally art history has been inherently elitist & exclusive, both socially & intellectually. Art tended to be commissioned by the upper classes. Connoisseurship was seen as a superior, refined skill & the products of art-historical scholarship were guarded almost as fiercely as the art itself."

On May 29, 2012, William Noel, now Director of Special Collections Center & Director of Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies. University of Pennsylvania, told The TED Blog, "...digital data is not a threat to real data, it’s just an advertisement that only increases the aura of the original, so there just doesn’t seem to be any point in putting restrictions on the data. There is the further fact that the data is funded by taxpayers’ money. So it didn’t seem fair to limit what taxpayers could do with the data that they paid for."

On February 7, 2017, Thomas P. Campbell, Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, announced a new policy: all images of public-domain artworks in the Museum's collection are now available for free & unrestricted use. "We have been working toward the goal of sharing our images with the public for a number of years. Our comprehensive & diverse museum collection spans 5,000 years of world culture & our core mission is to be open & accessible for all who wish to study & enjoy the works of art in our care. Increasing access to the Museum’s collection & scholarship serves the interests & needs of our 21C audiences by offering new resources for creativity, knowledge, & ideas."